The White Devil critical quotes

Question 1

Power and Control

Answer 1

1) “Vittoria is symbolic, she stands for the beauty which destroys” - Irving Ribner
2) “Webster presents complete social chaos through personal corruption” - De Sevilla
3) “Their good virtues such as Isabella’s fidelity, hold no rewards” - B Layman

Question 2

Deception and Disguise

Answer 2

1) “The dramatic techniques of The White Devil compound all kinds of disguise, decipeit, and false rhetoric” -Bruce H Franklin
2) “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely” - Lord Acton
3) “Vittoria is symbolic: She stands for the beauty which destroys” - Irving Ribner

Question 3

Injustice

Answer 3

1) “Her trial is such a mockery” - Susan McLeod
2) “Religion for him is another form of control and abuse” - De Sevilla
3) “Webster heightens the desolateness of his world by making his few decent characters” - B. Layman

Question 4

Institutions

Answer 4

1) “Religion for him is another form of control and abuse” - De. Sevilla
2) “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely” - Lord Acton
3) “The cardinals judging of Vittoria becomes a mockery of justice; his very existence an implicit denial of moral order” - Irving Ribner

Question 5

Restrictions

Answer 5

1) Webster creates a “morally ambiguous world” -John Jump
2) “John Webster’s The White Devil replicates in microcosm the women’s social limitations within a strongly patriarchal society” - June Wauby
3) “Vittoria becomes the prototype of the feminist heroine who strongly fights male prerogatives” - De Sevilla

Question 6

Defiance

Answer 6

1) “Vittoria becomes the prototype of the feminist heroine that strongly fights male prerogatives” - De Sevilla
2) “Their good virtues such as Isabella’s fidelity hold no rewards” - B Layman
3) “Websters tragedies are a search for moral order in the uncertain and chaotic world of Jacobean scepticism” - Irving Ribner

Question 7

Corruption

Answer 7

1) “Webster presents complete social chaos through personal corruption” - De Sevilla
2) “Webster’s tragedies are a search for moral order in the uncertain and chaotic world of Jacobean Scepticism” - Irving Ribner
3) “Giovanni who is on hand to provide a perfunctory just ending” - B Layman

Question 8

Religion

Answer 8

1) “Religion for him is another form of control and abuse” - De Sevilla
2) “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely” - Lord Acton
3) “Their virtues such as Isabella’s fidelity, hold no rewards” - B Layman

Question 9

Desire

Answer 9

1) “Vittoria is a combination of beauty and corruption” - Alexander Leggatt
2) “Her trial is such a mockery” - Susan McLeod
3) “Vittoria is symbolic; she stands for the beauty which destroys” - Irving Ribner

Question 10

Manipulation

Answer 10

1) “Vittoria is a combination of beauty and corruption” - Alexander Leggatt
2) “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely” - Lord Acton
3) “Vittoria becomes the prototype of the feminist heroine who strongly fights make prerogatives” - De Sevilla